The Sophons
The Sophons are a curious, peace-loving race whose highest ideals are found in scientific knowledge and technological advancement. Keen to explore and understand the mysteries of the cosmos, they believe the universe is something to intellectually master. Although pacifist in outlook, and despite frail bodies not used to violence, Sophons can construct vessels of devastating offensive capability. Lore Curious, analytical, and inquisitive, the Sophons are a people who pride knowledge above all else. No theory – or machine – is so perfect that it couldn't be improved with a bit of tinkering; advances come both in great leaps and in tiny increments. And, occasionally, violent explosions. The Sophons travel the galaxy driven by their thirst to discover and understand. As such, they view war as nothing more than a distraction from the important things in life. However, with their advanced technologies, they can become a surprisingly dangerous foe. Leadership The Geniocratic Demarchy of Hekim (also referred to as the Sophon Republic or simply "Sophonity") is ruled by a triumvirate. While the structure and responsibilities can change with each new government, the current roles are: Ziawauid Deaimim - Provisor of External Affairs (diplomacy, defense, etc.) Leumac Seyaga - Provisor of Internal Affairs (police, infrastructure, etc.) Keuytha Chuedoal - Provisor of Future Affairs (education, research, etc.) Homeworld The Sophons evolved on Hekim, a cold and rocky world orbiting a blue star. Due to the high radiation levels of their sun they mutated and evolved quickly. As a result, despite their frail form and almost suicidal level of curiosity, the Sophons somehow survived the process of natural selection and developed a civilization. In a surprisingly short time, the Sophons were traveling along the cosmic strings of the galaxy. Society Sophon society is devoted to learning, philosophy, exploration, and study. They view the universe not only with awe, but also as an intellectual puzzle for them to unravel. Optimistic, they hold full faith in scientific progress and technological advancement. To the Sophons war is a wasteful undertaking, imposed on them by more warlike aliens. They prefer cooperation with and, if possible, the studying (with occasional dissection) of other species. Mechanics The Sophons are a very "vanilla" faction which only differentiates themselves with some simple bonuses rather than extensive alterations to the game mechanics. That said, even they do have a few little unique mechanics: Omniscience: 'The technology output of the empire is temporarily boosted if you happen to be researching a technology that some other empires don't already have. It scales linearly depending on how many other empires have a technology; if all of them have it, you get no bonus. If none of them have it, you get the full bonus, which is 50%. (TODO: confirm that this is linear) '''Pathfinder: ' The Sophons have a unique vision boost. If they explore a node, then they will also reveal a very limited amount of information about any nodes that are connected to it via starlanes. First and foremost, they're able to see the node's position (the full line of the starlane is revealed to them); secondly, they can see the "political affiliation" of whatever controls that node - they essentially can see the color of any influence circles (aka owned territory). This immediately can tell you if there is another empire with a system there, a minor faction, or perhaps most importantly for what's likely a very weak "exploration fleet": whether there's a pirate base on the node. (TODO: confirm if this works for wormholes) Traits Population Traits Political Traits Ships Colonizer Strategic Implications One of these slots '''must be filled with a colonization module, so you at most can equip 2 engines. You'll have average speed. This ship is perhaps one of the most unremarkable colonizer ships. Since it has nothing but utility slots, and a slightly-below-average number of them, it moves slowly, settles planets, and that's it. Because of the Sophon's inherent fleet movement bonus, this isn't quite as bad as "2 engines" might sound; it's something more like "2.5 engines" or "2.2", depending on how far into the game you are. Explorer Strategic Implications As a "pure exploration" ship this has below-par potential, since you only have two slots. Normally you'd have a low-ish speed compared to most faction's exploration ships, but this is offset by both the innate speed boost Sophons get as a faction (+2), and the "Sophon Free Move" engine you can get. It's still not super fast. This ship does have two attack slots, though, so it can pack some serious firepower if you need that, early. Because of some crazy loadout potential on the Sophon Protector ship, that's actually your best ship for "revealing the map", rather than this ship that's formally their "exploration" ship. However, since it can't explore curiosity sites, you'll probably want to use both - to do a thing where you use the Protector to scope where everything is, and then send these guys in to actually probe the sites. Attacker Strategic Implications This is a reasonably well-rounded ship, leaning towards defensive modules. It can equip 3 engines, but two of them require the upgrade. Protector Strategic Implications The real standout feature of the ship is the ability to equip 6 support modules, which potentially means 6 engines (two of them require the upgrade). Coupled with that "Sophon free move" module from the faction quest, which has higher-than-average engine speed and also provides stacking bonus vision, this is the go-to ship to quickly discover the galaxy (which is one of the faction quests for the Sophons). You can't equip probes on this, but you can have a lightning-fast ship with a colossal vision range. Due to the loadout of the ship, it's a bit of an odd duck in the Protector-as-a-Tank role; a more "normal" protector (like the Unfallen's protector ship) would have a very large complement of defense modules; this ship can load 4 once you've got the upgrade, which is decent but below the average count (which is around 5). The trick to using this as a combat ship is to not think of it as a "Tank" - especially, the trick is to not treat the "utility" slots as useless boondoggles outside of fitting engines - you need to actually rely on support modules that affect combat. You may, for example, want to effectively 'shift' these out of a protector role by equipping jammers - you could then give them repair bots, shield boosters, or some sort of specialized weapons+amplifiers. If you don't want to tech to these upgrades, you're probably better off fielding combat groups primarily composed of Kilos (Attackers), and perhaps holding out for the Peta (Coordinator) to use as a "Tank". Coordinator Strategic Implications Leans a little towards defense, but is fairly balanced. 2 Squadron slots even without the upgrade, but you don't get another one when you upgrade. Like the Deka (Protector), this also has 6 potential utility slots, so it's got the same ridiculous potential to have 6 engines. Hunter Strategic Implications Pretty well-rounded; balanced durability/attack slots. Has 3 potential engine slots, though one requires the upgrade. Carrier Strategic Implications The Sophon Carrier is a well-rounded ship, since it has no standout weaknesses. If you count the overall number of offensive slots (8), it's actually the highest in the game (tied with the United Empire carrier). Two of these have contention with defense slots, if you go all-in on attack you'll still be left with a respectable 5 defense slots, whereas if you use those for defense, you've got a whopping 7 defense slots. One relatively low thing on the ship is it only has 3 squadron slots, and 1 requires the upgrade. This is not an "exploitable weakness", due to how squadron modules and combat in general is balanced, since if someone tries to swarm you with bombers you'll probably blow them up with your regular weapons in the meantime — but it's worth noting. Has 5 potential engine slots, with one requiring the upgrade. Potential Population Quest Rewards These are the rewards for a quest any faction can receive simply for having >10 Sophon population on at least two systems. Those Darn Kids * Whapster: (Building, Unique) +20 on System * Culture Jam Centers: (Building, Unique) +50 on System Strategy Sophons are arguably the best faction in the game for a first playthrough, as they have no truly unique features, but their main trait - increasing research speed for any technology not researched by anyone else - is very straightforward and very easy to utilize. Most Sophon ships are quite fast due to the +2 perk, a lot of utility slots, and the improved engines, provided the player chose that option. Most of their fleet is unremarkable, outside of fragile Protectors, but the Carriers are truly deadly, especially considering that the Sophon player will probably have access to them faster than anyone else. The fact their ships move faster than average gives fleets better chance to intercept hostile invaders attempting to conquer one of their planets with their weaker than average ground forces. To this end, while it's easier to go for a Scientific victory (since the 50% bonus works on Endless technologies as well), neither Supremacy nor Conquest are out of the picture. Faction quest strategy Category:Factions